Cabinet reshuffle unlikely before Tihar

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KATHMANDU, Oct 23 - A day after forcing Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to bow down, his opponents in the Nepali Congress (NC) today decided that they would not join the Koirala government unless Sunday’s agreements are implemented.

Sunday’s meeting of the Central Working Committee (CWC) had decided to renew the membership of all the active members of the party, with the exception of few involved in anti-party activities, following pressure from the anti-Koirala camp led by Krishna Prasad Bhattarai.

The rebel members led by Sher Bahadur Deuba met today to discuss Sunday’s CWC decision and decided that unless Koirala "sincerely implements" the decision they would not give in the names to be included in the Cabinet.

For the past two weeks, Koirala has been seeking a list of names from Bhattarai that are to be inducted in the Cabinet.

However, the Bhattarai side has been refusing to do so until the issue of renewal of active membership was solved. On Sunday, the CWC decided to renew the active membership of all the NC members whose names had been posted in the list published in 1995.

The meeting decided on the 907 applications filed claiming mistakes and omission in the list of active members published few weeks back.

With the exception of the NC activists who had decided to contest as rebel candidates during election or supported them, the remaining members whose names had been on the 1995 would get their membership renewed.

This meant that another 2,000 members would be added to the list of nearly 105,000 members. These members will soon elect 1,500 members to the General Convention during NC’s District Conventions.

The general convention members will be electing party officials including the party president.

The anti-Koirala camp has been accusing the Koirala camp of using their domination on the party office to add new members against the agreement between the two factions in the party and barring supporters of the rebel camp from getting their membership renewed. Though the two factions agreed to a truce over the weekend, the much awaited reshuffle in the cabinet is not likely to happen before Tihar, sources close to Prime Minister Koirala said.

The reshuffle in the cabinet to include equal number of people from the anti-Koirala in the party was agreed in August after over four dozen NC lawmakers rebelled against him and threatened to oust him from office.

"The path has been cleared since the agreement at Sunday’s Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting, however, the reshuffle in the cabinet is less likely to happen before the Tihar festival," said the source.

Govt in search of new alternatives to garbage menace

By Razen Manandhar

KATHMANDU, Oct 23 - After being driven out by the local people’s protest at Chovar, the newly proposed landfill site, the government is in search of new possibilities to solve the capitals’s garbage crisis.

Secretary of Sanitation Sub-committee at Ministry of Local Development Bishombhar Lal Pradhan said making a landfill site in these days is an extremely difficult task.

He said, "We know nobody would lay red carpet for piles of garbage, but we are also working hard to meet all the local people’s demands so that we could get cooperation from them in this high-hitting crisis."

Pradhan said that dialogue with the representatives of Chovar as well as other sides is still going on and the ministry would take any step only after the locals are convinced.

Attempts of Ministry of Local Development to solve the problem of garbage once again faced a slap of failure on 18 October, even before the idea took any shape, when the locals of Chovar protested against the government’s proposal.

After being driven out from Guheshowori area, the slope around Chovar gorge was chosen as a short term solution for the bulging garbage which Kathmandu Metropolitan City has been collecting for the last two weeks in its small collection centre.

The government authorities and KMC planned to develop the barren area of Chovar as a landfill site and also to convert it into a composting plant for the over 300 tonnes of garbage the capital produces everyday.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Development Ram Chandra Paudel himself took initiative to find a short-term landfill area to solve the crisis immediately.

But, as usual, the locals of Chovar, already hit by the irresistible pollution of Himal Cement Factory, made a series of protests against that proposal.

Mayor of Kirtipur Municipality Hira Kaji Maharjan said, "It is not proper to bring garbage of one place to another. We discussed on this topic and reached a conclusion that allowing any garbage dumping from another area is impossible."

The protests took a political turn when representatives of different parties took steps in forming protest groups, organising mass meetings and issuing press releases.

The locals claim that the controversy of Chovar is merely political and the leaders are "playing games" with the innocent locals.

Now, even the local Nepali Congress leader is not ready to support the government in this issue. NC Chairman of constituency no 7 of Kathmandu, Rajan KC said "Though I am affiliated with the ruling party, I have told the deputy prime minster that I can’t help the government in this issue."

Gas stations closed against price hike

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KATHMANDU, Oct 23 - In response to the petrol pumps bandh called jointly by the grouping of nine left parties and Consumers’ Forum Nepal, all the private pumps in the capital remained closed today , forcing the vehicles to queue at government run pumps.

Various political and social organisations are campaigning against the recent petro-price hike pressurizing the government to rollback the prices.

The government on Oct 13 hiked the price of petrol, diesel and kerosene to Rs 47, Rs 27.50 and Rs 26, up from Rs 40, Rs 23 and Rs 13, respectively. The government reasoned that it was compelled to take the move in view of increasing petro-price in the international market and in neighbouring India.

CFN, the consumers’ pressure group, also held a protest rally in the capital. The rally which kicked-off from New Road, Pipalbot, marched around the city chanting anti-government slogans and turned into a sit-in in front of Singha Durbar, the Cabinet Secretariat. President of the Forum Harendra Bahadur Shrestha then submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.

Meanwhile, the grouping of nine left parties organized a mass meeting at Patan this afternoon as a continuation of their series of pressure campaign against the price-hike. The left parties called for a black-out throughout the capital from 7:15 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. today which passed away without much success.

Kathmandu ward 10 committee of the main opposition CPN (UML) also organized a protest programme this evening. The local party workers hung an effigy of Prime Minister Koirala at New Baneshwore and also held a corner meet against the price hike.

UML pressuring on Govt-Maoists dialogue

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RAUTAHAT, Gaur, Oct 23 - The main opposition CPN-UML is "mounting pressure on both the government and Maoist rebels to come to the negotiating table to put an immediate end" to the four and half year old insurgency, the main opposition leader Madhav Kumar Nepal said here Monday.

After a couple of rounds of close talks with the rebel leaders earlier, party leader Nepal had recently declared his party’s willingness to mediate the government-insurgent talks. Last week, he also disclosed that some of his top leaders held talks with the rebel leaders in an insurgency-hit district and persuaded them to hold dialogue with the government.

"Our party is pressuring on both sides to come to an agreement to end the insurgency immediately," said Nepal, addressing a press meet organised by Nepal Press Union Rautahat Chapter.

Accusing the government of "harbouring wrong means" to resolve the Maoist problem, he said "I once again reiterate that the solution of the problem must be sought at a political level."

Government since the last month is applying a two-pronged approach to tackle the rebellion: Government is mobilizing the Royal Nepal Army against the insurgents and it is also calling them for talks for the peaceful resolution of the problem.

"When will the Congress become serious if not right now when the country is plunged in crisis," he said, adding that his party has to "initiate something concrete to bring the government into the right track."

Shortest roadlink to China on the way

By Surendra Phuyal

KATHMANDU, Oct 23 -  For millions of people in Nepal and China whose only overland connection is through the Kodari or the Araniko highway, this could be a good news: Chinese and Nepali officials are currently working on to speed up the Syabrubensi-Rasuwagadi highway project.

If constructed, the highway will link Nepal with Tibet’s Kerung, which lies next to Rasuwagadi.

Divisional Engineer Krishna Bahadur Thapa at Department of Roads (DOR) who is in charge of the proposed highway project, today said that the Chinese Embassy officials in Kathmandu are in the process of awarding mapping works of the proposed highway project site to a Finnish private firm, FINMAP.

"FINMAP has written in its proposal sent on August 21 that it will submit the aerial and digital maps of the project site within three months," Thapa told The Kathmandu Post Monday. "Other works--like feasibility study, costing and construction--will begin thereafter."

Economic and Commercial Counsellor’s Office of the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu and FINMAP representatives are expected to sign an agreement to this effect this week, according to him.

According to officials at Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the governments of Nepal and China had "agreed in principle" to open the new roadlink three years back, and that China also agreed to provide necessary financial assistance for the project.

Experts say only 19 kilometre-long-road needs to constructed from Syabrubensi to Rasuwagadi in the central mountainous district of Rasuwa in order to open the new roadlink. Syabrubensi lies 135 kilometres north-west of here, and 15 kilometres north of Dhunche, the district headquarters of Rasuwa district.

And from Trishuli (Bidur), the district headquarters of Nuwakot, Syabrubensi lies 63 kilometres away; and Trishuli will be linked with Prithvi Highway near Galchhi if another 17 kilometre road project, popularly known as Galchhi-Trishuli linkroad, is upgraded.

According to Bhim Lal Hirachan, District Development Committee (DDC) President of Rasuwa, the Chinese government last year allocated Rs 670 million for the highway project. Moreover, in the annual budget for the current fiscal year, the government (of Nepal) too has allocated Rs 51 million for the project, he said.

"We are absolutely in favour of the new China-Nepal roadlink is clear from the fact that three successive annual council meetings of our DDC have endorsed the proposal," Hirachan said. "And, according to Chinese authorities in Kerung the Chinese too want the highway to be constructed. It is in their interests too."

Experts say the proposed highway will not only ease pressure on the 125-km Kodari Highway - which was also constructed with the Chinese assistance in the 1960s - but also contribute towards boosting the age-old trans-Himalayan trade subsisting between the two Asian neighbours.

Says former foreign minister; "The road will be Nepal’s shortest roadlink with China when completed. It will help boost our economy in that Chinese goods will have easier access to our markets, and that we will have shorter via-Tibet-route to supply foodgrains to our inaccessible hills districts of the western and mid-western regions."

The Syabrubensi-Rasuwagadi Highway is also expected to cut short the distance between Nepal and Lhasa, the capital of Tibetan Autonomous Region of China.

The agreement to open Syabrubensi-Rasuwagadi road was reached during the tenure of Dr Mahat three years ago. He was holding the portfolio of Finance Minister then.

Beginning this year, the government has started to send food supplies to such inaccessible hill districts as Dolpa, Humla, Mugu and Mustang via Tibet.

"This road will definitely bring about drastic changes in our lives," stresses Hirachan. "The government should not delay the highway project, and it should not care what Indians say. It is in the interest of Nepal and China."

Of late, the two governments during Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola’s China visit in August, agreed in principal to open two more roadlinks--Mustang-Lizhi road and (Sankhuwasava) Kimathangka-Dingri road--to facilitate trans-Himalayan trade.

National Scout Camp concludes

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KATHMANDU, Oct 23 - The five-day National Scout Camp jointly organised by the district scout offices of Lalitpur, Kathmandu and Bhaktapur ended here Monday. Some 2000 participants from 28 districts of the country had participated in the grand scout event.

Scouts from India, Norway and USA had also participated in the event.

"Nepal Scouts has not held such a grand event in years," Shreeram Lamichhanne, the Camp-Chief said. "Jamboree, a big scout event was organised here 15 years back."

"It is the event where scouts get together to develop scouting skills, promote friendship and goodwill," Lamichhanne added.

State Minister for Education and Sports Dilendra Prasad Badu said that scout activities will certainly help the "disturbed and direction-less youth" of the country to recharge themselves for nation building.

On the concluding session, scouts from both Nepal and India performed cultural shows. Scouts from Accham and Bajura dressed in their local attire performed "Deunda", a popular folk dance in the far-western region of the country. Bhaktapur scouts performed their local "Kumari" and "Tahamacha" dances.

Scouts from Jhapa, Saptari and Jajarkot also displayed their attractive local attires. Some 100 Indian scouts, more than 100 in number, also performed a procession demonstrating their national heroes".

Medals and certificates were also awarded to various scouts across the country during the function.